COUSIN JOSEPH:—It is some time since I have seen you, & I hope that your business is florishing, and that you & Cousin Elizabeth, and little Betty are well. I would be getting on prety well if these blustering returned Soldiers had any thing but their filthy Continental Money to pay with. I had one put in Jail the other day, old Job Smith, up on the Northampton Road. He came down from his High Horse, after I got the Sheriff on his back & began to sniffle & whine, and talk about a sick Wife, & how he had been wounded at Trenton. I tell you, Joseph, it is our turn now, & we have gott these bare footted heros on the Hip. That white livered Sneak & Coward, G. Washington, was in Springfield, yesterday. A lot of Fools dressed up in their best, and went over the river to see him. I hear he stopped at Zene Parsons’ Tavern, and rode in a fine Coach, with four Horses, and a whole company of Lackeys to bend & crouch & lick his Boots. He is more like a King than a president, and they say he grows wors every day. I hear he has already overdrawed his salary, & has stole $4,000, and I can well believe it. What any one can see to worship in that man, I cannot understand. He is treacherous in private Friendship, a hypocrite in public life, and the World will be puzzled to know whether he is an Apostate or an Imposter, whether he has abandoned his principles or whether he ever had any. Posterity will say that the Mask of political hypocricy has been worn by Caesar, by Cromwell, and by Washington. This journey he is taking is to make political Capital. He wants a second Term in Office, & he is catering to the vote of New England. He is an aristocrat, a Monocrat, an Anglomaniac, & an American Caesar. He ought to be the Servant of the People, but he wants them to bow & treat him like a little King. We had one odious King George, & now we are burdened with another. He is not the father, but the Stepfather of the Country. A friend of mine in New York, tells me for a fact, that this man comitted murder in his youth, & you have doubtless heard of those letters of his which have been found, that prove beyond the shadow of a Doubt, that this man, who is hailed as the Saviour of the Country, was really a Coward, that he was at heart as much of a Traitor as Benedict Arnold, only he lacked Arnold’s Boldness & Courage to carry it out. I have just received a Pamphlet written by one Valerius, which ought to be scattered abroad as a patriotic Document. I will copy one particularly good paragraph for you.